THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 49, February 21, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RESISTING ISLAMIC LAW
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE WEST & ISLAMIC LAW: INCREASING APPLICATION OF THE SHARI'A IN WESTERN SOCIETIES -- WHAT CAN BE
DONE TO STOP THE SPREADING APPLICATION OF ISLAMIC LAW, A MEDIEVAL LEGAL SYSTEM DEEPLY AT ODDS WITH
MODERN CIVILIZATION, BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS & WESTERN-STYLE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY, A LEGAL SYSTEM
THAT OPPRESSES WOMEN & TURNS NON-MUSLIMS INTO SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS? AN ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP:
WESTERNERS MOUNTING A UNITED FRONT AGAINST THE SHARI'A
FULL STORY:
Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law -- i.e., the Shari‘a -- watch with dismay as it goes from strength to
strength in their countries: harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the
Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system
so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?
A first step is for Westerners to mount a united front against the Shari‘a. Facing near-unanimous hostility, Islamists back
down. For one example, note the retreat last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a dispute
concerning guide dogs used by the blind.
Muslims traditionally consider dogs impure animals to be avoided, creating an aversion that becomes problematic when
Muslim store-owners or taxi drivers deny service to blind Westerners relying on service dogs. I have collected fifteen such
cases on my weblog, at "Muslim Taxi Drivers vs. Seeing-Eye Dogs": five from the United States (New Orleans, Cincinnati,
Milwaukee, Brooksville, Fl.; Everett, Wash.); four from Canada (Vancouver, twice in Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Alberta);
three from the United Kingdom (Cambridge, twice in London); two from Australia (Melbourne, Sydney); and one from
Norway (Oslo).
News accounts quote Muslim cabbies rudely rejecting blind would-be passengers, yelling at them, "No dog, No dog, Get
out, get out"; "Get that dog out of here"; and "No dogs, no dogs." The blind find themselves rejected, humiliated,
abandoned, insulted, or even injured, left in the rain, dropped in the middle of nowhere, made late for an appointment, or
caused to miss a flight.
Australian Human Rights and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes is often denied service by taxi drivers,
because of his guide dog. [1]
Islamist organizations initially responded to this problem by supporting anti-canine cabbies. The Muslim Association of
Canada pointed out how Muslims generally regard dog saliva as unclean. CAIR, on one occasion, echoed this assertion,
claiming that "the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual purity needed for prayer." On another, the head of CAIR, Nihad
Awad, declared that "People from the Middle East especially … have been indoctrinated with a kind of fear of dogs" and
justified a driver rejecting a guide dog on the grounds that he "has a genuine fear and he acted in good faith. He acted in
accordance with his religious beliefs."
However, when the police and the courts are called in, the legal rights of the blind to their basic needs and their dignity
almost always trump the Muslim dislike for dogs. The Muslim proprietor or driver invariably finds himself admonished,
fined, re-educated, warned, or even jailed. The judge who found a cabby's behavior to be "a total disgrace" spoke for
many.
CAIR, realizing that its approach had failed in the courts of both law and of public opinion, suddenly and nimbly switched
sides. In a cynical maneuver, for example, it organized 300 cabbies in Minneapolis to provide free rides for participants at a
National Federation of the Blind conference. (Unconvinced by this obvious ploy, a federation official responded:
"We really are uncomfortable … with the offer of getting
free rides. We don't think that solves anything. We
believe the cabdrivers need to realize that the law says
they will not turn down a blind person.")
And, finally, last week, the Canadian office of CAIR issued a statement urging Muslims to accommodate blind taxi
passengers, quoting a board member that "Islam allows for dogs to be used by the visually impaired."
CAIR's capitulation contains an important lesson: When Westerners broadly agree on rejecting a specific Islamic law or
tradition and unite against it, Western Islamists must adjust to the majority's will. Guide dogs for the blind represent just
one of many such consensus issues; others tend to involve women, such as husbands beating wives, the burqa head
coverings, female genital mutilation, and "honor" killings. Western unity can also compel Islamists to denounce their
preferred positions in areas such as slavery and Shar‘i-compliant finances.
Other Islam-derived practices do not (yet) exist in the West, but do prevail in the Muslim world. These include punishing
a woman for being raped, exploiting children as suicide bombers, and executing offenders for such crimes as converting
out of Islam, adultery, having a child out of wedlock, or witchcraft. Western solidarity can win concessions in these areas
too.
If Westerners stick together, the Shari‘a is doomed. If we do not, we are doomed.
NOTE:
[1] Today, there was a nasty attack on me by an Australian blogger named Irfan Yusuf, who posted a long analysis in which
he accused me of a mistake in the foregoing article. He challenges my assertion in this article that Australian Human Rights
and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes is often denied service by taxi drivers, because of his guide dog.
Yusuf jumps on me, saying that "It is unclear how Mr Pipes reached this conclusion about Commissioner Innes,"
concluding that I "misrepresented" Innes.
Misrepresented him? Hardly. Innes has repreatedly spoken about being denied taxi service, on account of his seeing-eye
dog. For starters, read the following pages on the Internet:
http://human rights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2007/13
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21785791-421,00.html
http://www.barkingbuddies.com/
Further, Innes indicates that the drivers sometimes cite a religious reason for refusing his guide dog, a clear allusion to the
Shari‘a, the only religious law with strictures about contact with dogs.
My innocuous statement is factually correct. Yusuf's insulting blog is factually incorrect. I bother to point this out because
Yusuf's screed is so typical. And to point out how sensible debate cannot proceed when the other side is hysterical and
inaccurate.
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in the Jerusalem Post, February 21, 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, February 20, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5475
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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